What does Burwell’s easy path to confirmation say about Obamacare?

By Russ Britt

As Sylvia Mathews Burwell skated to an easy confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary by the U.S. Senate this week, the question on many minds was: “What does this say about the state of affairs with Obamacare?”

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Sylvia Mathews Burwell

The 78-17 vote in favor of Burwell may suggest to some that partisan tensions over the Affordable Care Act are easing, but fellows at two well-known Washington think tanks say that would be a misread. And don’t look for Burwell, despite receiving clear bipartisan support from even the most ardent foes of Obamacare, to quell the furor over the highly controversial law.

“No one person can do this, certainly not the HHS secretary,” said Henry J. Aaron, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, which describes itself as independent, but is often seen as left of center. Aaron says Obamacare has been run largely out of the White House, not HHS, and Burwell can only serve as one spokesperson for the law. That won’t be enough to overcome today’s political climate.

“I think the current of hyper-partisanship is too deep and too pervasive,” Aaron said.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with the personality of the person who runs HHS,” he said. “The law is the law.”

Burwell’s most recent history as the White House’s budget director won her plaudits from lawmakers who praised her for being easy to work with. She is perceived as being more competent than outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who oversaw Obamacare’s rocky launch last October.

Moffit did say that Burwell, along with other federal agencies, will have unprecedented regulatory power over health care. If she handles certain decisions in the manner that charmed Republican lawmakers in her confirmation hearings, it could soften the blow. But implementing the law will undoubtedly ruffle feathers in a number of places, he adds.

“Once she starts making these decisions, she’s going to start making enemies,” Moffit said. “Many of us look at this and we can thank God it’s not us in that job.”

Yet it may not be that difficult for her, says John McDonough, professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health. While Moffit and Aaron expect more battles over Obamacare in the future, McDonough contends that tensions over the law already are cooling, and Burwell could make the road even smoother for the law going forward.

“The fact is that the beast is already taming before our eyes,” McDonough said. “It’s very clear Republicans are not pushing for more votes to repeal Obamacare.”

If anything, he said, the vote heavily favoring Burwell indicates that the fever pitch over the law already has cooled. If a vote were taken now, a few House Republicans might defect to the other side.

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